Palladium and Iron Cocatalyzed Aerobic Alkene Aminoboration

Aminoboration of simple alkenes with nitrogen nucleophiles remains an unsolved problem in synthetic chemistry; this transformation can be catalyzed by palladium via aminopalladation followed by transmetalation with a diboron reagent. However, this catalytic process faces inherent challenges with instability of the alkylpalladium(II) intermediate toward β-hydride elimination. Herein, we report a palladium/iron cocatalyzed aminoboration, which enables this transformation. We demonstrate these conditions on a variety of alkenes and norbornenes with an array of common nitrogen nucleophiles. In the developed strategy, the iron cocatalyst is crucial to achieving the desired reactivity by serving as a halophilic Lewis acid to release the transmetalation-active cationic alkylpalladium intermediate. Furthermore, it serves as a redox shuttle in the regeneration of the Pd(II) catalyst by reactivation of nanoparticulate palladium.